Morning Brief: Friday, August 12, 2016

Today’s Morning Brief is brought to you by Canada World Youth. On this International Youth Day, we believe that engaging and connecting young people is critical to building a better world. We are proud of our commitment to youth exchanges and global youth development.

We’re still learning more about the young man who was planning to carry out a suicide bombing on Canadian soil earlier this week, but security and radicalization experts say the fact Aaron Driver was able to plan a terrorist attack with explosives while under a peace bond shows the court-ordered tool is far from the full answer to controlling people with extremist ideas. As CP’s Jim Bronskill reports, among the terms of Driver’s peace bond was being prohibited from possessing explosives, as well as using a cellphone or computer. The RCMP say that although they were familiar with the 24-year-old, he was not under constant surveillance. It was a tip from the FBI that alerted them to his plan this week.

Driver’s father is a retired solider and says his son was rebelling because he was “still angry God took his mother” when he was seven. He also had “a hate on for Christians.”

There’s news that’s bound to make more than a few government employees steam. After months of issues with little or no pay, there could still be months of the same to come. Marie Lemay, the deputy minister at Public Services and Procurement Canada says even once the current backlog is cleared by the government’s promised October deadline, the malfunctioning Phoenix pay system may not be operating in a normal or “steady state.” The Citizen’s Kathryn May has that story.

Safe to say we’re in the throes of the dog days of summer when spotting a shirtless Justin Trudeau, Sasquatch-style, has become the latest fad across Canada. It’s spurred a Conservative fundraising campaign aiming to end it, left the photographer that captured a shirtless Trudeau accidentally photobombing a BC wedding miffed over the party’s unauthorized use of her image, and led Liberals to double down on the Tories’ shameless exploitation by shamelessly exploiting it. Our Kyle Duggan looks at the fundraising war that’s erupted around the prime minister’s bare chest.

Now, having been on the receiving end of a swatting from the photographer on Twitter, the Conservatives have launched a milk carton attack campaign that lists Trudeau as ‘missing’ and notes he was ‘Last seen wandering shirtless in the B.C. wilderness looking for photo ops.’ Surely all involved must have a touch of sunstroke?

Nova Scotia Liberal MP and lawyer Colin Fraser told Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould in committee Thursday that he was “concerned” his own government won’t commit to replacing retiring Supreme Court Justice Thomas Cromwell with an Atlantic Canadian. “I believe that that regional representation that is a custom has served us well as a country,” he said. As our BJ Siekierski reports, Fraser’s not the only one concerned.

A day after Donald Trump told supporters “we’re having a problem” and acknowledged his campaign could fall short, his team and top Republican Party officials are set to gather today for what has been dubbed a “come to Jesus” meeting in Orlando to discuss what’s driven things off the rails. Our friends at Politico have that story. That said, the Republican nominee insists he’s not about to abandon the controversial style that got him this far. Should that lead to a loss to Clinton in November, it just means he’s “going to have a very, very nice long vacation.”

“A series of blasts across Thailand targeted the tourist towns of Hua Hin, Phuket and other locations, leaving at least three dead and many injured. They came hours after twin bombs killed one person in the seaside resort town of Hua Hin, near the capital Bangkok.” The town has been hit by multiple blasts again today, while two explosions were also reported in the popular tourist destination of Phuket. BBC World reports.

Ukraine ordered its troops to be on the “highest level of combat readiness” yesterday, amid growing tensions with Russia over Crimea. That move comes after Russia accused Ukraine on Wednesday of launching a militant attack at “critically important infrastructure” near the city of Armyansk, Crimea. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said that was “insane” and suggested Russia’s aim was more military threats against its neighbour. The BBC has that story as well.

In today’s Featured Opinions:

Very few democratic leaders come to power promising blood and thunder. A few exceptions come to mind: Winston Churchill (the war was already raging when he became prime minister) and Donald Trump (whose election prospects now seem to hinge on proving Hillary Clinton is actually a charter member of ISIS).

Nobody sets out to be a foreign policy prime minister or president. Justin Trudeau didn’t — and yet, as Michael Petrou points out, he wouldn’t be the first elected leader to find his foreign policy plans upended by war, terrorism and the kind of dimwitted demagoguery embodied by Trump. “Trudeau won’t get to choose which foreign policy issues define his time in office. All he can do is choose how he responds to them.”

There’s trouble on the domestic front as well, of course — a dismal jobs report and a swelling trade deficit. Tasha Kheiriddin says the dire job market puts Trudeau in an awful bind when it comes to the Temporary Foreign Worker program; the Liberals have promised to ease its restrictions somewhat, but jobless voters might have something to say about that first.